The pineapple plant is ridiculous because it looks like a pineapple sitting on top of a plant! It's hilarious.

it is like it is photoshopped.

oh, and the banana wikipedia page put me through changes. I was not prepared for the bigass purple banana, or the green banana with seeds as large as pomegranate seeds.

WTF fruit.

WTF fruit.

INDEED.

I was watching a PBS rerun of a Michael Pollan show called "The Botany of Desire" yesterday. The whole show was fascinating (loved the history lesson on the orchid mania in 17th century Holland), and the part about apples was really interesting; it dealt with how for most of recorded time, apples were used for hard cider. It was only with the development of large orchard farms using grafted plants for sweeter fruit that edible apples became popular. Problem is that the grafting technique leads to a monoculture and all of the problems therein--pests, fungi, etc.--and the necessary spraying of chemicals to combat said problems.

Oh well, I wasn't really planning to go anywhere this weekend anyway - [link]

MTA service including subways, buses, and railroads will begin to shut down at noon tomorrow, so please prepare to evacuate immediately.

(I'm not in an evacuation zone, thank goodness. Just housebound due to lack of transit.)

(Also, how can EVERYONE be out of flashlights already? Weren't the drug stores prepared for everyone leaving their hurricane shopping until the last minute?)

Is New York thoroughly de-Duracelled?

Midtown seems to be. No flashlights or D batteries near me or DH. Knowing my neighborhood, there will probably be a guy selling them off a table right outside the subway though.

I have LED flashlights that take AAA. Those were in good supply last night.

According to Hubs (who gets to do hurricane prep because he was in a training class that ended at 1:00 and I'm at work until 4:00), supplies are still available in the farther western parts of the DC metro area.